Page 32 of Their Alpha

I smiled, but I knew it didn’t reach my eyes. I wouldn’t be able to protect him from the thing that would hurt him more than he’d ever been hurt. I wouldn’t be able to protect him from me.

“You know I would never do anything to deliberately hurt you,” I said, forcing myself to begin.

“I know,” Gideon jumped in, scooting closer to me and beaming. “Bringing Artemis here was your way of helpingme and protecting me from the ravages of heat. I don’t blame you at all for any of it, or for letting him break past my barriers so I could ride him for that last wave.”

I swallowed, the sick feeling returning. He didn’t understand what I was saying or where I was going with things. His smile was so beautiful and his happiness so complete. I didn’t want to crush him. Maybe I could delay talking about the bond, at least until Artemis came back.

Gideon’s smile faltered and his cheeks pinked even before he said, “I hope you don’t hate me for saying this, but watching Artemis fuck you through your heat waves was so hot.”

My eyes popped wide and my mouth dropped open a little. I never would have expected my sweet, traumatized Gideon to say that watching a huge alpha rail me while I moaned and screamed for it would be hot.

Gideon laughed at my reaction. “Well, it was,” he argued. “Or maybe it was my own heat hormones talking. You were clearly enjoying it, and in such a you way.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Gideon’s face went redder. “You’re super lusty, you know. With me you are. And then seeing you on the other end of that, offering yourself so wantonly and diving into the pleasure so thoroughly. You’re incredibly sexy when you’re horny.”

I laughed, even though it was a paradoxical reaction to my complete brain overload. “You were okay with watching that?” My voice rose an octave as I spoke.

Gideon hid his face in his hands for a second before peeking between his fingers and saying, “I kind of touched myself and made myself come while you were having that breeding orgasm.”

My jaw dropped even further. “Gideon!”

I was only teasing him by pretending to be shocked. In fact, a shoot of hope had sprouted inside me and begun to grow.

“I think seeing how much you liked it was what gave me the courage to mount Artemis,” Gideon went on, turning slightly serious. “And I’m so glad I did. Fletcher, there’s something I have to tell you.”

Panic hit me again. He was in love with Artemis now after all. He was going to say he wanted to leave me for him. How was I going to explain?

The sound of his cell phone ringing kept him from blurting it out and breaking my heart. He must have slipped it into his trousers pocket at some point, because he pulled it out now. He looked at the screen, and his joyful, naughty expression flattened into a frown.

“Hello? Malachi? What’s wrong? Is it Papa?”

My entire body clenched. Gideon’s brother Malachi. He was a beta and a year older than Gideon, but they’d been close. Malachi still lived with The People, but he owned a cell phone. A cell phone he had to keep hidden because it was forbidden for anyone other than male alphas to own a cell phone in their community.

Malachi had called twice in the last three years, once to let Gideon know that their sister, Ruth, had been married off to one of the community alphas and once whenhehad discovered where we were living.

I prayed one of the other siblings had gotten married.

Gideon’s suddenly horrified expression told me that wasn’t it.

“Hold on,” Gid said, his voice shaky. “Fletcher is right here. Let me put you on speaker.”

Gid pulled the phone away from his ear and tapped it.

“…when he was here visiting yesterday,” Malachi was in the middle of saying. “He was bragging to everyone that it would only be a matter of time before you rejoined the fold, and he implied Fletcher would be completely out of the picture.”

“Malachi, it’s Fletcher,” I said, leaning forward, like that would somehow help him understand me better. “Just tell me one thing, does Goode know where we are?”

“I’m pretty sure he does,” Malachi said, not missing a beat as I joined the conversation. “He knows you two have a farm outside of Barrington. I couldn’t tell just by listening in to him and Father talking whether he has an exact address or just a general idea, but with the resources he has available, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has an address. He has multiple agents posing as Tristan Freehold fans and combing the internet for any information about you.”

“The new fan on social media,” Gideon said, his bottom lip trembling and tears filling his eyes. “Did he say anything to Father about when he’s coming for me?”

“He didn’t give an exact day or time, but it sounded like he was going to come get you immediately. He said he had one business thing to take care of, but then he was taking a few weeks off from work so he could ‘retrain’ you.”

Gid swooned to the side. I caught him to keep him from passing out entirely.

“Thanks, Malachi,” I said. “You saved us once, and I think you might just have saved us again.”

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